Loss of blood is a major cause of death in emergency situations in which the injured person is alone or medical assistance is not immediately available. The use of a tourniquet to stop blood loss from an injured arm or leg is a well-known technique for preventing death in these situations. In general, for emergency use where the victim is alone, the victim must be able to apply the tourniquet to his or her own arm or leg and occlude blood flow using only one hand. If the victim is not alone, one or more additional people can either apply the tourniquet to the injured person, or at least assist with applying the tourniquet to the injured person. However, whether the injured person is alone or is with someone who can assist in applying the tourniquet, it would be advantageous for at least one of either the injured person or the additional person to understand how to apply the tourniquet.
Tourniquets generally generate inward radial compression forces on a limb by being put into high levels of circumferential tension when wrapped around the limb. A tourniquet used in training could potentially cause injury to a volunteer pretend patient or one's self if the tourniquet is actually applied with some non-trivial amount of pressure. This is because modern tourniquets can generate relatively significant compressive forces to a person's appendage that cause soft tissue damage. More particularly, a real tourniquet includes a way of applying a relatively high amount of pressure around a limb to reliably and predictably stop arterial blood flow. Therefore, if one or more people are practicing or training how to use a tourniquet, and if the tourniquet is an actual functioning tourniquet, and if, as one would reasonably expect, the training includes learning how to apply and tighten the tourniquet, and then actually practicing tightening the tourniquet, then non-trivial amounts of compressive force may be unknowingly and/or inadvertently applied by a trainee. As a result, even in a training situation a modern tourniquet can then cause actual unnecessary injuries to nerves, muscles and the limb. Thus, it would be advantageous to provide a tourniquet that can be repeatedly used in a training situation, while also not actually applying compressive forces that cause injury to the person pretending to be injured or trying to learn how to apply a tourniquet to one of their own appendages.